- From: Danny Ayers <danny.ayers@gmail.com>
- Date: Tue, 16 Aug 2005 11:14:14 +0200
- To: general@simile.mit.edu
- Cc: semantic-web@w3.org, schavester@gmail.com
On 8/14/05, Stefano Mazzocchi <stefanom@mit.edu> wrote: > http://wiki.mozilla.org/Mozilla2:Unified_Storage > > They are clearly looking for a native triple store, but they are > confusing it with a embedded relational database. > > It would kick so much ass if we could convince them to use something > like redland instead (and would make my life as a piggy-bank developer > *waaaay* easier). > > Thoughts? Yep, an RDF store within Moz would /calcitare asinus/. In straight tech terms I guess it doesn't really matter whether the underlying implementation is SQL-DB based or native - there may be some advantages in the former, where issues like scalability can be pushed to a different (totally solved) layer. But there may be a danger hinted in your remark re. confusion. If there was a SQL DB underlying an RDF store, there'd be temptation for developers to use it at that layer, rather than the more interoperable triple layer. I've a feeling I saw a recent RDF in SQL DB design doc, but can't find the link - anyone got a ref? (Coincidentally I just stumbled on another case, Steve Harris' updates to 3store [1]). If the Moz guys do continue in the direction on the Wiki, it would be a shame for them to have to reinvent the wheel. Those Wiki pages give me a lot more optimism about RDF in Moz, I've seen a few comments in the recent past suggesting movement away from RDF with the familiar "too complicated, we can do this with XML" argument. They may have more justification than usual, with Moz's implementation being begun with the old RDF specs, I get the impression of clunky hangovers (i.e. containers). But whatever the history, now's the time the RDF capability could *really* be exploited. A couple of avenues come to mind through which the Moz folks might be further encouraged. One is SPARQL. It's exceedingly cool - are they aware of this? The other would to present a prototype based on the current build tree as a fait accompli. Anyone got a research student with time on their hands? Once a store was integrated, the PiggyBank material shows one good route to demoing the potential. Redland does seem like a very good candidate, having native capability on the different platforms, no need for a separate VM. Cheers, Danny. [1] http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/11152/ -- http://dannyayers.com
Received on Tuesday, 16 August 2005 09:14:24 UTC